When Kate Greer first stepped on foot on the Ohio State University campus four years ago, she knew this would be a special place.
“Since the moment we stepped on campus we have been dreaming of walking through the ‘Shoe in our robe and cap to pick up that diploma,” she said. “That’s not something a lot of big universities like Ohio State do, but everyone gets a diploma, and everyone walks, even if there are 10,000 of us."
But this year, there is no walking onto the field of the Ohio Stadium because the university is only hosting a virtual ceremony because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Greer, who is the president of the university's undergraduate student government, says for her and some of her classmates, the news of the ceremony change was tough.
“To so many people – especially first-generation students whose families have never seen someone walk at a graduation ceremony from a university – losing that was just too devastating,” Greer said. “You can’t help but be a little disappointed, but you can’t blame, you’re just kind of mad at the world a little bit."
Greer says one silver lining is that Ohio State promised the Class of 2020 an in-person celebration later.
In the meantime, Greer, who will be a Fulbright Scholar next year, is preparing her commencement speech.
While she wasn’t initially slated to speak, Greer says she was asked to be the student speaker since the stage will have limited guests who will be socially distanced apart.
“I want to keep my message optimistic,” Greer said. “We always were going to be spread out in the world. Our class was always, right after commencement, going to go in a million places and do our own things, we just happened to start that process earlier.”